on nina simone

In 1960, one year after Nina Simone’s first album, Little Girl Blue, was released, the poet Langston Hughes struggled to put the appeal of Simone’s music and presence “that dusky voice, that unblinking gaze” into words. “She is strange,” Hughes wrote in The Chicago Daily Defender. “So are the plays of Brendan Behan, Jean Genet and Bertolt Brecht. She is far out, and at the same time common. So are raw eggs in Worcestershire.”

Hughes was just getting warmed up. “She is different. So was Billie Holiday, St. Francis and John Donne. So is Mort Sahl, so is Ernie Banks.” He continued: “You either like her or you don’t. If you don’t, you won’t. If you do ” wheee-ouuueu! You do!”